The government's welfare overhaul is in "serious trouble" and is costing the taxpayer "up to £1.5bn", says Labour.

Liam Byrne said he hoped Universal Credit could be saved and suggested Labour would work with the government to "get things straight".

But he said failures on that project, employment schemes and housing benefit changes had run up the welfare bill.

The government said his figures were "ludicrous" and the speech a "last ditch attempt" to keep his job.

In what some speculate may be Mr Byrne's last speech as shadow work and pensions secretary, ahead of a Labour reshuffle, Mr Byrne levelled a personal attack at cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith, suggesting: "There seems to be something very wrong in the mind of the man at the helm of DWP."

"He has a mandate to reform but the instruction to deliver appears to have got lost somewhere in his office."